- [uncountable] a force that causes bad things to happen; morally bad behaviour
- the eternal struggle between good and evil
- He believed he could rid the world of the forces of evil.
- to fight/combat evil
- the battle/fight/struggle/war against evil
- He was a good man who was forced to do evil.
- You cannot pretend there's no evil in the world.
Extra Examples- She sees money as the root of all evil.
- His simple message was that God will punish those that do evil.
- You can always choose to resist evil.
- a duty to defeat the evil of terrorism
- the intrinsic evil of taking a human life
- the pure evil in his soul
- Humans have the capacity to do more evil than any other species on earth.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- great
- absolute
- pure
- …
- commit
- do
- combat
- …
- the forces of evil
- good and evil
- a necessary evil
- …
- [countable, usually plural] a bad or harmful thing; the bad effect of something
- the evils of drugs/alcohol
- They hardly mentioned such social evils as racism and sexism.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- great
- absolute
- pure
- …
- commit
- do
- combat
- …
- the forces of evil
- good and evil
- a necessary evil
- …
Word OriginOld English yfel, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch euvel and German Übel.
Idioms
See evil in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee evil in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishthe lesser of two evils | the lesser evil
- the less unpleasant of two unpleasant choicesTopics Preferences and decisionsc2
a necessary evil
- a thing that is bad or that you do not like but that you must accept for a particular reason
- The loss of jobs is regarded as a necessary evil in the fight against inflation.
Check pronunciation:
evil